South-North Water Diversion Mid Line to Kick off in Oct.

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, September 02, 2003

South-North Water Diversion Mid Line to Kick off in Oct.

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The world eye-catching project of water diversion from south to north along the middle of China is going to be kicked off in full the coming October. The project of great magnificence will alleviate in an effective way the present shortage of water resources and ecological deterioration in Beijing, Tianjin and the north China region. Meanwhile it also plays a role in getting Xiangfan, a renowned historical and cultural city in the middle of the Han River closely connected with the municipalities of Beijing and Tianjin.

Middle Line Water Diversion Project to be Completed in 5 Years with Water to Flow Freely from the Han River to Beijing & Tianjin

On August 28, the experts for ecological protection of the three places made a joint study to the Danjiangkou Reservoir, the water outlet for water-drawing of the South-north Water Diversion Project on the upper part of the Xiangfan Stretch of the Han River. The construction of the middle-line water diversion project soon to be started will make Danjiangkou Reservoir the water outlet, introduced Huang Youhua, Deputy Director of Xiangfan Water Conservancy Bureau, the main water channel is to set off from the first sluice-gate of Taochaqu, in Xichuan County of Henan Province. And then it goes along the plains in front of the Funiu Mountain and Taihang Mountain and by the west of Beijing-Guangzhou Railway all the way up to Beijing and Tianjin, crossing the two provinces of Henan and Hebei. The water channel extends some 1,246 kilometers, plus the additional channel of 144 kilometers to Tianjin with the water annual conducting volume of the first phase project to reach some 15 billion cubic meters.

How can the water flow a distance of almost 1400 kilometers from the Han River to Beijing and Tianjin areas? According to Huang Youhua, before the water to be diverted from the reservoir it has to carry out another project by making the big dam 14.6 meters higher than the original with the water storage level to rise to 170 meters, an additional 13 meters higher than the former water level. In this way, it form a natural water drop of 150 meters as against that in Beijing and Tianjin areas and so the water will be able to flow freely to Beijing and Tianjin. Whoever drinks the water must never forget the water-supplier and people in Xiangfan will make efforts to guarantee the water supply to Beijing and Tianjin.

The water diversion project from south to north will surely bring happiness to the people in Beijing, Tianjin, Henan and Hebei while for the people in Xiangfan, the "water-contributing area" they will undergo a series of impacts when the project is kicked off. According to the statistics by relevant experts of the Central University of Science and Technology, the middle line water diversion project will have to draw every year 9.5 to 14.5 billion cubic meters of water from the Danjiangkou Reservoir, causing a reduction of 21 - 36 percent of the water-flow down the Han River. The influences entailed brook no neglect as to hydraulic situation, urban and rural water-supply, agricultural irrigation, ecological protection of marshland, fishery resources and inland navigation as well as embankment along the Han River in Xiangfan area.

About this, Ma Li, Head of the Publicity Department of the Xiangfan City told the reporter, "to rebuild the ecology in the Han River area" is an urgent task for the people in Xiangfan and "to make it a dual win for both south and north" is the common wishes of the Xiangfan people. To reduce the unfavorable influences of the water diversion on the middle and lower reaches of the Han River to the minimum a series of work, such as city sewage treatment, treatment of industrial pollution sources, city garbage treatment and renovation of the Han River embankment and watercourse, a total of over 10 projects are now in full swing in Xiangfan. Aside from the aforesaid, a complete hydraulic hinge project is going to be carried out at Cuijiaying, some 17 kilometers away from Xiangfan to the lower reaches of the Han River, the investment being about RMB 1.5 billion-yuan. The Ministries of Water Conservancy and Communications have taken it as one of the nine terraced projects for development. When it is completed it will not only help alleviate the unfavorable influences brought about by the water diversion project on the transport and navigation, industrial and agricultural water-use and fishery along the middle and lower reaches of the Han River but also save some 0.4 billion cubic meters of water being conducted out from the Danjiangkou Reservoir, and thereby increasing the water-supply volume to Beijing and Tianjin.

Ecologists Advocate: Protection of Ecology along the Han River, an Extremely Urgent Task

When the water diversion project along the middle line is kicked off the self-purification ability along the Xiangfan Section of the Han River will be greatly diminished with water quality to be reduced from Grade 2 to Grade 3 due to the reduction of water flow volume and the flowing speed. The intensification of water pollution and aggravation of waste marshland and the deterioration of ecological environment along the middle and lower reaches of the Han River prove to be great worry for the ecologists from the tripartite places of Beijing, Tianjin and Xiangfan.

In order to protect the ecological environment along the Han River, the tri-maternal river of Beijing, Tianjin and Xiangfan, making the people in three places able to drink the clear water from the Han River, the ecologists of the three places also call on the people along the course of the water diversion project to strengthen water-saving consciousness, to save water-use at first and then follows the water-diversion. It is also necessary to strengthen the consciousness for pollution treatment, putting the treatment before the conduction of water, to strengthen the consciousness for environmental protection, putting environmental protection before the using of water. Only by protecting well the ecological environment can the win-win of both south and north be finally realized.

Translated by R.L. Han, People's Daily Online

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